The orders are visible and all the market sells match perfectly with them.

Get a clue.

261 fell, and there was nothing odd about it.

So what are you trying to say. That here are a steady stream of buyers all delighted to make purchases at not much more than $261, matched by a steady stream of sellers happy to sell at no less than $261, for about the last 21 hours or something?

I scoffed at first, haven't been following gox for a while now, but this really is something I've never seen before.

If anyone can provide another example of this kind of behaviour, for this amount of time, in the life of bitcoin, (since 100 or so, please no examples from those horrible doldrums at +/- $5) I would very much like to see it.

Does the wall just keep getting refilled? it doesn't look that big...

"You have no moral right to rule us, nor do you possess any methods of enforcement that we have reason to fear." - John Perry Barlow, 1996

I scoffed at first, haven't been following gox for a while now, but this really is something I've never seen before.

If anyone can provide another example of this kind of behaviour, for this amount of time, in the life of bitcoin, (since 100 or so, please no examples from those horrible doldrums at +/- $5) I would very much like to see it.

It was quite common in 2011 and 2012 to see 'walls' constructed on either the bid or ask side, with many Speculation forum posts about manipulators manipulating the price of bitcoin for their benefit. The walls would get bought or sold into and collapse rather quickly on occasion. Some would see the 'walls' as support for the price, with a belief that the entire 'wall' must be purchased before the price could move further. This is of course not true.

It's a free market. People are free to do whatever they like with their trades.

It's a free market. People are free to do whatever they like with their trades.

This is not 'free market trades'. This is the exchange manipulating the price using bots with lots of fake volume/numbers.

This my friend, would be deemed illegal behaviour on any other market and is probably also illegal on Bitcoin but nobody gives a damn so it goes on unabated across all exchanges. It is just so obvious on Gox probably due to the absolute lack of real trade going on at the present time.

It's a free market. People are free to do whatever they like with their trades.

This is not 'free market trades'. This is the exchange manipulating the price using bots with lots of fake volume/numbers.

This my friend, would be deemed illegal behaviour on any other market and is probably also illegal on Bitcoin but nobody gives a damn so it goes on unabated across all exchanges. It is just so obvious on Gox probably due to the absolute lack of real trade going on at the present time.